What do you mean ? Op asked if squad would make it. Do you just mean sack ole if it looks like we won't make top 4?
Good enough for top 4 next season?
- Thread starter Zlatattack
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With the addition of a quality centre back such as Maguire or Koulibaly, and a central midfielder who's young, hungry and not going to be bossed around by the lazy underperforming senior players, yes.
To me, McTominay for Longstaff. I think this could become a great season for him. And I expect another major signing even if Pogba is staying - something young and fresh on the right to compete with Lingard, i.e., Omni or Sancho.
I bet Solskjær is aiming for the title next season.
To hopefully get top 4, we need:
- Maguire and Fernandes at a minimum
- Keeping Pogba atleast for a season
- Better coaching for cohesiveness
- Defending better as a team
I bet he isn’t. No way are we closing that gap in one window. Top 4 has to be the aim, or win Europa. We’ve got to get back in the CL to get even better players in.
This team is good enough for top 4.
Main worries are losing Herrera and Matic looking over the hill, but a proper midfield signing should solve that issue.
Main worries are losing Herrera and Matic looking over the hill, but a proper midfield signing should solve that issue.
The 4th spot will be very competitive. 4th is the target rather than top 4 imo
If we sell Lukaku, we'll definitely be bringing someone in.
You'd expect any manager to get top 4 with that team. It's capable of 2nd at a push.
Essentially the same place we started last season but like last season it wouldn't be enough investment for a title challenge
Essentially the same place we started last season but like last season it wouldn't be enough investment for a title challenge
Chelsea have a green coach that can't make transfers and no hazard.
Arsenal in a shambles and can't afford to buy anyone. If we can't make top 4 this year we should just stop trying
Arsenal in a shambles and can't afford to buy anyone. If we can't make top 4 this year we should just stop trying
No.
Chelsea may have weakened but them and Arsenal are stronger than us for the pure fact their attack is better than Martial - Rashford - Lingard. Frankly even Wolves and Everton have better attacks than us.
Chelsea may have weakened but them and Arsenal are stronger than us for the pure fact their attack is better than Martial - Rashford - Lingard. Frankly even Wolves and Everton have better attacks than us.
2nd no way, I look at City and Liverpools starting 11 how many of our players make it in? Even Spurs starting 11. Son, Eriksen, Kane. None of Rashford, Lingard, Martial make it over the Spurs trio. And the likes of Aguero, Jesus, Sterling, De Bruyne are a class above.
Really you would say Pogba and De Gea would make the cut in City or Liverpool. But then De Gea has had a serious dip in form and Pogba blows hot and cold. Fred or Mctominay are not getting in the midfield. Our CB's? Nope.
The xfer window is still open but I just dont see us bridging the gap in one window.
If we play attacking, pressing from the front consistently and it all clicks, we can surprise everyone.
Top 4 minimum imo.
Top 4 minimum imo.
This, exactly this!
A front three of Martial, Rashford and Lingard won't get us anywhere near top 4. Not enough goals or consistency there at all.
It’s going to take more than one window to catch City and Pool.
BTW, I may have said this already but I definitely don't want Lingard in the starting 11. If it were up to me we'd have a brand new front 3 to challenge the current one but I wanted to consider what is likely to happen rather than what I want to happen.
De Gea/Henderson
Wan-Bissaka/Dalot -- Lindelof/Bailly -- De Ligt/Smalling -- Shaw/Young
Bruno Fernandes/Pereira -- Matic/Longstaff -- McTominay/Fred
Lingard/Mata -- Rashford/Greenwood -- Martial/James
Wan-Bissaka/Dalot -- Lindelof/Bailly -- De Ligt/Smalling -- Shaw/Young
Bruno Fernandes/Pereira -- Matic/Longstaff -- McTominay/Fred
Lingard/Mata -- Rashford/Greenwood -- Martial/James
It's not perfect. But if that squad is achieved (and the muppet in me is very, very hopeful) then it would be devastating to only make 4th this season. I would expect us to be at least 3rd and hopefully capitalising on any errors made by City and Liverpool (
) in hopes of turning them into fatalities. Having said that, it's hard for me to be rational during transfer season because I'm eternally optimistic!Unless there is a surprise RW signing I presume and really hope that we are planning on playing either James or Martial on the RW with Rashford or Martial on the LW and Rashford / New CF competing for the CF sport?
Lingard / Mata to be options for cup games and when players need a rest.
Please tell me that's the case and Mata / Lingard are not planned as starters next season.
Lingard / Mata to be options for cup games and when players need a rest.
Please tell me that's the case and Mata / Lingard are not planned as starters next season.
Seeing as there is no Pogba/Lukaku, where is the money spend on their profits? Or am I just thinking too Football Manager like.
Top 4 is ours I think.
Let's not forget the way we started last season.
We just need a few games to go in our favour and let's not forget how important our fitness needs to be.
I see us retaining Lukaku and Pogba which I think will have better seasons than previous years.
Let's not forget the way we started last season.
We just need a few games to go in our favour and let's not forget how important our fitness needs to be.
I see us retaining Lukaku and Pogba which I think will have better seasons than previous years.
In your favour arsenal are no where near sorting their defensive problems out, Chelsea have a rookie manager and transfer ban so I reckon that the top three will be man city Liverpool and spurs. 4th 5th and 6th will be up for grabs but for Leicester or wolves to break into top 6 would mean scoring 20+ more goals and i can't see that at the moment. So United would be a good bet for 4th place.
Not in my opinion. We need other teams to 'drop off' in form and progress for us to get anywhere.
I think our current squad will do well to get top six again. Europa League is a long additional campaign.
Plus, I'm not convinced with the manager.
That front 3 is the stuff of nightmares. For us.
defense is a massive upgrade. we finally have a proper RB rather than a right winger/left winger turned into a fullback because they are not good enough as wingers anymore (and i know AWB was a winger in his younger days, and Evra was a striker). Maguire is a beast in the air, and compensates Lindelof brilliantly imo. both of them are not the quickest but at least AWB and Shaw can run a bit.
I think the midfield will be Matic-Pogba-Bruno Fernandes which is not perfect defensively because Matic is slow and static but he is our best option still. offensively Pogba and Bruno Fernandes could be brilliant. McTominay is a good backup as best, maybe Fred can step up this season and replace Matic, who knows?. as for Longstaff i think he will be slowly eased into the team. if he is that good then he should get into the first eleven sooner rather than later but that's a big ask for a player who has only 8 PL appearances. anyway if we sign Bruno Fernandes i'll be happy for us to sign Longstaff and let him develop here.
we are not going to sign a RW this summer i think, and unfortunately we'll have Mata and Lingard as our RW option. don't think Rashy will get us 20 goals as well. if Lukaku stays, and when he is in his purple patch i can see Rashy moving to RW with Lukaku at CF and Martial as LW. pretty much the same as last season, unless Rashford and Martial finally decide to go up another level ala Ronaldo/Rooney back in the 2006/07 season which is going to be a very big ask.
Chelsea got a transfer ban, Arsenal got 20million to spend, number 4 is definitely achievable. Got to watch out for Wolves but if we end up signing at least Maguire and Fernandes we should be good enough for 4th place. still, we need to spend around 130 million to get to this level.
If we can pull off the signings we are most linked with right now, I would fancy us to finish in the top four if Chelsea/Arsenal don't do some serious business. I think those two managing to have what most would class as 'better transfer windows' than us is unlikely to say the least, but of course it depends how it all transitions on the pitch. Signings that fans feel address the right areas give a different feeling and create optimism in the air, as seen with Liverpool recently. Even though many were saying they'd overpaid for certain players, they definitely fixed their Achilles heel with the right investment and now it all looks worth it. I'd actually say we are doing a similar thing thus far, even if some fans don't think all the players are the right ones or will take us to that next level, it might all work out and we'll look back thinking we got a few bargains. I like the strategy and I fancy us for top four at the moment, but I fear we will lose another big star to fund the incoming players.
This is what I feel like the aim is for the board at the moment:
In: James, Wan-Bissaka, Longstaff, Maguire, Fernandes, Ben Yedder
Total: £240m~ (Probably 'add-ons' of in excess of £10m~ that come later down the line)
This is more than I expect us to spend despite any sales as I've said countless times already, but I'm optimistic that this is the kind of Summer Ole is striving for. Obviously, net spend will be lower but I keep going back to our previous total spends per season and wonder if Ole is going to be trusted with such a significant transfer budget in just the Summer window. Jose's biggest ever spend at United was £178m~, which includes the January transfer window that year as well (Sanchez/Mkhitaryan swap). The net spend was only £138m~ and this is Jose Mourinho we're talking about - a serial winner with one of the most immense managerial CV's in football history. Do you suddenly let Ole spend £100m~ more than him given what Ole has done as a manager? I think it's a bit far-fetched to expect that, but I suppose it isn't out of the question if the right amount of funds are brought in through player sales. If we are going to miss out on a player from the above, I think we would be priced out of the Maguire bid to bring our spend down to sub-£170m~ and player sales would likely get that lower than our biggest ever net spend.
Out: Herrera, Valencia, Lukaku, Darmian, Rojo, Pogba*
Total: £80-95m~ / £210m~*
The outgoings are more difficult to determine. Ole has been quoted (I think by Rojo himself) that he sees a future for Rojo at United. This seems wrong to me as we should be looking to move him out first from our current crop of CB's, but if we fail in our Maguire bid and don't target anyone else, I think we'd end up not selling a CB this Summer as so many of ours have questionable injury records at best. We're basically forced to keep five experienced ones as two will probably be injured at all times. Darmian should be gone given that we have four fullbacks, but the club seem to be willing to keep him around rather than use a youngster as 5th choice which baffles me. I think it's time we moved him on though just to get a bit of cash back. Lukaku to Inter seems imminent and I think Ben Yedder is 'done' if this move comes to fruition. The club will be happy to bring in a proven goalscorer only using half of the Lukaku funds, because we have plenty of young attackers who can develop while Ben Yedder plays a lot for us. The money will mostly be used to offset our net spend IMO though, it's not as if it all gets invested technically. The big worry is that Pogba leaves - it's arguable that Fernandes is being signed as a replacement, but I'd hope Paul stays (could be just one more year though). However, if Pogba does leave, I think it'll be late in the Summer after we've done all the above business. It'll look all dandy with us having spent more than ever, fixed everywhere but possibly the Right Wing slot in one go, but then sell Pogba and it's as if the club spend less than our budget and big questions will be asked again. The mood would change IMO, but it might be good in the long-term.
Tl;dr, I think we should finish in the top 4 by default if we do most of the above business. We have a better squad than Chelsea & Arsenal right now IMO and should improve at least slightly more than they do from this point onward and could feck off the Europa League unless we make it to the last 8/16 then take it seriously.
This is what I feel like the aim is for the board at the moment:
In: James, Wan-Bissaka, Longstaff, Maguire, Fernandes, Ben Yedder
Total: £240m~ (Probably 'add-ons' of in excess of £10m~ that come later down the line)
This is more than I expect us to spend despite any sales as I've said countless times already, but I'm optimistic that this is the kind of Summer Ole is striving for. Obviously, net spend will be lower but I keep going back to our previous total spends per season and wonder if Ole is going to be trusted with such a significant transfer budget in just the Summer window. Jose's biggest ever spend at United was £178m~, which includes the January transfer window that year as well (Sanchez/Mkhitaryan swap). The net spend was only £138m~ and this is Jose Mourinho we're talking about - a serial winner with one of the most immense managerial CV's in football history. Do you suddenly let Ole spend £100m~ more than him given what Ole has done as a manager? I think it's a bit far-fetched to expect that, but I suppose it isn't out of the question if the right amount of funds are brought in through player sales. If we are going to miss out on a player from the above, I think we would be priced out of the Maguire bid to bring our spend down to sub-£170m~ and player sales would likely get that lower than our biggest ever net spend.
Out: Herrera, Valencia, Lukaku, Darmian, Rojo, Pogba*
Total: £80-95m~ / £210m~*
The outgoings are more difficult to determine. Ole has been quoted (I think by Rojo himself) that he sees a future for Rojo at United. This seems wrong to me as we should be looking to move him out first from our current crop of CB's, but if we fail in our Maguire bid and don't target anyone else, I think we'd end up not selling a CB this Summer as so many of ours have questionable injury records at best. We're basically forced to keep five experienced ones as two will probably be injured at all times. Darmian should be gone given that we have four fullbacks, but the club seem to be willing to keep him around rather than use a youngster as 5th choice which baffles me. I think it's time we moved him on though just to get a bit of cash back. Lukaku to Inter seems imminent and I think Ben Yedder is 'done' if this move comes to fruition. The club will be happy to bring in a proven goalscorer only using half of the Lukaku funds, because we have plenty of young attackers who can develop while Ben Yedder plays a lot for us. The money will mostly be used to offset our net spend IMO though, it's not as if it all gets invested technically. The big worry is that Pogba leaves - it's arguable that Fernandes is being signed as a replacement, but I'd hope Paul stays (could be just one more year though). However, if Pogba does leave, I think it'll be late in the Summer after we've done all the above business. It'll look all dandy with us having spent more than ever, fixed everywhere but possibly the Right Wing slot in one go, but then sell Pogba and it's as if the club spend less than our budget and big questions will be asked again. The mood would change IMO, but it might be good in the long-term.
Tl;dr, I think we should finish in the top 4 by default if we do most of the above business. We have a better squad than Chelsea & Arsenal right now IMO and should improve at least slightly more than they do from this point onward and could feck off the Europa League unless we make it to the last 8/16 then take it seriously.
I really wish we'd go for Ndidi from Leicester and have a team like this:
de Gea
Wan-Bissaka Lindelof Maguire Shaw
Ndidi
Fernandes Pogba
Rashford Ben Yedder Martial
---
Romero
Dalot Smalling Bailly Young
Matic
McTominay Fred
Lingard Sanchez James
---
Grant; Jones; Longstaff, Mata, A.Pereira, Gomes; Chong, Greenwood
Loan: J.Pereira, Henderson; Fosu-Mensah, Tuanzebe
Unlikely of course, but I'd be really happy with that squad.
Wan-Bissaka Lindelof Maguire Shaw
Ndidi
Fernandes Pogba
Rashford Ben Yedder Martial
---
Romero
Dalot Smalling Bailly Young
Matic
McTominay Fred
Lingard Sanchez James
---
Grant; Jones; Longstaff, Mata, A.Pereira, Gomes; Chong, Greenwood
Loan: J.Pereira, Henderson; Fosu-Mensah, Tuanzebe
Unlikely of course, but I'd be really happy with that squad.
Well its looking like were going adding some real quality and have the addition already of AWB, smashing stats last year from him hopefully that continues in a United shirt. I think we have or will have, come the season opener a really good squad, certainly one that should be to 4 at least mate (I feel anyway). It'd be hard, Ole's a United Legend for sure but with the players we have already (providing we keep Pogba & DDG) and the addition of a new CB & Midfielder we're a top 4 team for sure, if Ole can't get us there this year I think that's it for him
. I don't think Manchester United can be out of the CL for 2 seasons I'm afraid.We are signing mid table youngsters and adding them to a mid table level team with an inexperienced manager. We need a miracle.
The signings may have potential and if we were adding them to an already established team I’d be happy with them.
It’s a different kettle of fish adding them to our squad at the moment, who are our older established leaders? Lingard?
Pogba?
I think next season could easily go either way and too four is far from certain
The signings may have potential and if we were adding them to an already established team I’d be happy with them.
It’s a different kettle of fish adding them to our squad at the moment, who are our older established leaders? Lingard?
Pogba?I think next season could easily go either way and too four is far from certain
Longstaff is no where near being a regular starter. Is he even back in training yet after his injury?
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It will be a battle, we should just accept that. I like the way we are seemingly operating in the transfer market but its not the way to lift the team quickly to challenge.
People keep complaining about our RW. James & AWB will be a big upgrade on that side over Young & Lingard.
If Pogba does stay, him pinging balls in behind for James to run onto could be a very good thing for us next year, with AWB behind him providing better cover than Young, it’ll really free him up.
If Pogba does stay, him pinging balls in behind for James to run onto could be a very good thing for us next year, with AWB behind him providing better cover than Young, it’ll really free him up.
Yes, I expect us to be better than at least Chelsea and Arsenal this season. Us or Tottenham for 3rd position.
Why are we not in for Malcom when he only costs 40m and Barca is looking to sell? I feel that he would solve our right wing issues.
Absolutely not. Could see us finishing 7th behind Leicester with that team
Maybe we're not trying to solve everything in one season? Maybe we've lined up a right winger for next season as we can't do it all in one go, or cannot convince the teams of the player we want to sell this season? Its never as simple as just wading in with a big bag of cash. We might have to accept the fact that it'll be Lingard / Mata / Greenwood on our right wing this year.
He is linked to Arsenal and I can't really imagine how we are a worse destination than them. People talk all about us signing Sancho for next season but is that even a guarantee? Things can change massively in a year especially in football. We are not talking about a position where we have okayish coverage, we are talking about one where we had no specialists playing in for close to half a decade. This is a position long overdue for solutions, and should be one of the priorities.
No. That defense is good, the midfield is dodgy and the attack is crap.
As I said, maybe we can't do it all in one season as we can't get the players we want, and have a finite ability to spend. Equally we have a lot of positions of need. So we're concentrating on positions that we can get the players we're interested in, and will look to resolve the other positions next year. I'd rather we spend strategically, on the players we want, rather than just rush around Europe buying anyone that plays in the position we need. That seems to be a more coherent transfer plan, something we've all been calling out for.
We’re still a centre back, defensive midfielder, central midfielder and a right forward away from fixing our major problems but I think a centre back, defensive midfielder and a central midfielder coming in before the end of the transfer window will see us get top four seeing as Arsenal have no money and Chelsea can’t buy anyone whilst having lost Hazard.
I think we should aim realistically at top 4, winning a domestic cup and winning the Europa League which shows progress from last season and may help show players we’re finally headed in the right direction, getting a Champions League spot next season will see players want to join us again as we have the money for wages for anyone in the world.
I think we should aim realistically at top 4, winning a domestic cup and winning the Europa League which shows progress from last season and may help show players we’re finally headed in the right direction, getting a Champions League spot next season will see players want to join us again as we have the money for wages for anyone in the world.
It also depends on the coaching fitness and tactics. Get this right and we should have enough quality to get top 4. Can see James and dalot both played at rw if we don't get anyone else in there. I think we will probably have another 2 possibly 3 players in anyway before kick off. More if lukaku and pogba go